Corrosion Inhibiting Product Undergoing FAA Approval Testing

By ANN Reporter Juan Jimenez

Aircraft Specialty Lubricants is showing off its CamGuard product at S-N-F 2004, and in particular the results of its independent testing that appear to show significant advantages to using the product vs. its competitors.

CamGuard is a supplemental lubricant additive product for infrequently used piston engine motor oils, including piston aircraft, passenger vehicle, marine and heavy duty diesel oils on aircraft, marine, motorcycles, emergency equipment, backup generators, classic and antique vehicles, agricultural and all seasonal equipment. The product is currently limited to use in experimental aircraft only, but FAA approval testing is ongoing and certification is expected sometime in the fall season.

According to company information, CamGuard is an active blend of eleven components designed to address rust and corrosion protection, wear protection, and deposit control and seal conditioning. It was designed by company chemist Ed Rollin to improve the performance all mineral based, semi-synthetic and fully synthetic motor oils.

The product got its name from the catalyst for its creation, Aircraft Specialties Services, a company that among other things claims to operate the largest aircraft engine machine shop in the United States. As part of their services, they inspect and repair thousands of internal engine parts on a monthly basis, including camshafts, lifters and crankshafts. This type of work means that they see what happens to these parts, representative of millions of hours of engine operation, and in particular the parts from engines that make TBO, and those that do not.

Their conclusion was that rust and corrosion was associated with virtually every premature wear-related failure of internal engine parts. Armed with this information, they contacted ASL and their chemists to determine if a solution could be found, and the result is their CamGuard product.

The independent testing results of the product show, among other things, that CamGuard significantly delays the onset of trace corrosion on key internal engine parts such as the camshaft, and with regular use appears to indefinitely delay significant 50% corrosion coverage. Using standard aircraft engine motor oils (15-50 and 20-50), trace corrosion was found between 12 and 18 days into the tests, and 50% coverage was reached in between 15 and 22 days. The addition of CamGuard to these oils increase the interval to trace corrosion detection to nearly 40 days, and the test was terminated after 60 days with no evidence of significant corrosion rust coverage.

When the tests were repeated with 100 weight motor oil, with and without third party additives, the results were even worse. Straight 100 motor oil produced trace corrosion after some 12 days, but tests with competitive additives decreased this interval to less than 10 days! The addition of CamGuard resulted in detection of trace corrosion after some 38 days, and the test was again stopped at 60 days without any evidence of significant rust corrosion coverage.

Full details of the testing as well as other information about the product are available on the company's web site. ASL is offering a show special of $19.95 per pint for the product, enough to treat the contents of an 8 to 10 quart sump. The additive should be added to every oil change to fully protect the engine components.

FMI: www.aslcamguard.com